Uncategorized —

Toyota Prius owners laugh all the way to the bank

The Prius has become the hybrid vehicle of choice for geeks over the past few years. There are entire websites, forums, and mailing lists dedicated to the pursuit of astounding fuel consumption rates through ingenious hacking. Even so, not everyone is a fan of the Prius' strange looking body and odd dashboard layout, which are similar to the concerns voiced in our review of the Honda Civic hybrid a couple of years ago. Judging from the pictures on Toyota's website, it looks like some of those kinks may have already been worked out.

Obviously, there are alternatives to the Prius. Big names like Ford, GM, Lexus, Mercury and of course Honda either already have hybrid models available or are getting them ready for production. With gas prices creeping towards three dollars per gallon in many US states, the apparent demand for hybrid vehicles is going through the roof. A survey conducted by Kelly Bluebook and Harris Interactive claimed:

...8 percent of the consumers considered hybrid vehicles in March, twice as much as 4 percent in February. It also said if gas prices reach $3 per gallon 77 percent of car shoppers will seriously consider a more fuel efficient vehicle.

The Prius gets anywhere between 50 and 60mpg and there are claims of reaching over 100 miles per gallon with the appropriate hacks, such as wiring it directly to your power grid for an extra serving of juice.

Waiting times on a new Prius are lingering around two months, down from the six-month wait that consumers were enduring when gas prices were reasonable. Even though, people who want a Prius immediately seem to be willing to pay a few extra bucks to get their hands on one. Prius owners are selling their used vehicles for $1,000 to $3,000 above what they originally paid for them:

...Rich Stevens, 81, of Des Moines owns two Priuses and plans to sell one of them and hang onto the other. His 2004 Prius with 16,000 miles is for sale at $25,000, which he told the paper is about what he paid for it a year ago. He is offering his new '05 model that he waited eight months to get for $29,000, about $1,000 above what he paid.

While I'm sure everyone would love to see fewer SUV's and more hybrids on the road, paying thousands of dollars above list price to avoid a two month wait is a little extreme. Gas prices are expected to level out this summer, so the rush might be a little premature. Additionally, as we all learned in STAT 101, it's impossible to extrapolate a trend from the doubling of interest in fuel-efficient cars as seen above. The automobile market is extremely fickle and two months of numbers can hardly be used as an indicator for a clean, fuel-efficient, and Hummer-free future.